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Edited by Andrew J. DuBrin

With contributions from many of the leading researchers in the field, the Handbook of Research on Crisis Leadership in Organizations summarizes much of the theory, research, and opinion about various facets of crisis leadership in order to advance this emerging field. It recognizes that crises have become an almost inevitable part of organizational life, and describes how leaders can facilitate people getting through the crisis.

Handbook Chapter

Extract

Our world is changing rapidly, and organizations are at the core of that change. Organizations are playing a more central role in our life, in the world economy, and in social and political transformations, affecting each individual in multiple ways. This is a recipe for larger and more severe crises in years to come. Organizational scholars share this view and warn against the looming hazards (i.e., Boin and Lagadec, 2000; Hargis and Watt, 2010; James, Wooten and Dushek, 2011; Palttala and Vos, 2011). For example, according to Kash and Darling (1998), it is not a question of if, but when, the next large-scale organizational crisis will occur, and how it will affect our lives. Examples from the past decade range from the business and private arena to the government and public sector. From the Enron affair to the Toyota debacle, through the collapse of Lehman Brothers and Merrill Lynch, to the bursting of the subprime mortgage bubble, to crises in local governments, service-oriented agencies, healthcare and education organizations, we have seen numerous large-scale crises (see, for example, Beeri, 2009, 2012). Nevertheless, despite these myriad examples, our knowledge about organizational crisis is still limited and far from complete. Research in the field of crisis management has focused primarily on the prevention of, and responses to, crisis events (Brockner and James, 2008; Deverell, 2009; Dutton and Jackson, 1987; Jaques, 2009, 2010; Ulmer, Sellnow and Seeger, 2007; Veil, 2011.

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